Israel: Iran could attack US with nuclear bomb

Israel has warned that Iran could try to attack the US if it acquired a nuclear weapon.

By Our Foreign Staff

7:14PM GMT 17 Dec 2008

Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, appealed to world leaders to act now to prevent Iran from continuing its nuclear programme.

"If it built even a primitive nuclear weapon like the type that destroyed Hiroshima, Iran would not hesitate to load it on a ship, arm it with a detonator operated by GPS and sail it into a vital port on the east coast of North America," Mr Barak told a conference of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.

Indicating the possibility of an Israeli military strike on Iran, Mr Barak said: "We are not taking any option off the table, and we recommend to the world not to take any option off the table, and we mean what we say."

His comments came as a Russian news agency reported that the Kremlin had confirmed that it will deliver a new air defence system to Iran. The Russian foreign ministry denied reports of the deal in October.

But it is now believed to be implementing the deal, which will see Russia deliver an S300 system to the Islamic republic to help it fend off possible air strikes on its nuclear sites by Israel or the US.

The most advanced version of the S-300 system can track targets and fire at aircraft 75 miles away. It is known in the West as the SA20.